Gravity Wave Detector ready to go: BBC

Submitted by charlie.collins on Tue, 02/18/2003 - 08:57

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Science

The LIGO is ready to go. Ligo (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) is an amazing undertaking that combines several facilities in different areas (one in Washington and one in Louisiana). These facilities are setup to transmit and record light waves in such a way that they can detect the slightest changes in the beam and distinguish "gravitational waves" as they pass through them. This is incredible work because it will help to confirm theories about the fabric of space time and gravity, and it will then of course further much more scientific information and discovery. For more see the linked BBC story. Gravity wave detector all set: BBC

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Re: Gravity Wave Detector ready to go: BBC

Submitted by cooper (not verified) on Tue, 02/18/2003 - 10:10.

Damn beat me to this one. Is this pimp or what? Seriously, $300m? What a bargain! Someone still has to justify to me why we can buy 6 $2b stealth bombers a year but we can't fund the SSC. Sure $300m sounds like a lot of money, but this is a drop in the bucket of the federal budget and you can't really put a price on this kind of knowledge.

Re: Gravity Wave Detector ready to go: BBC

Submitted by atrox (not verified) on Tue, 02/18/2003 - 10:17.

i know man, i am amazed by that all the time, people are doing lots of bitching now about the cost of the shuttle, "50 million for this, 35 million for this", etc, but all that science related spending pales in comparison to defense. not that defense is not important, but 2B for one airplane versus 200M? thats what i am talking about.

Re: Gravity Wave Detector ready to go: BBC

Submitted by Shmooze (not verified) on Tue, 02/18/2003 - 13:16.

Not to be negative or anything but I used to live in Lousisiana. Are we sure the same laws of nature apply down there? You get deep in the bayou and I'm not sure the laws of relativity still work.

Re: Gravity Wave Detector ready to go: BBC

Submitted by atrox (not verified) on Tue, 02/18/2003 - 13:24.

lol i was going to go there too but figured i would let someone from/lived in lousiana bring that up, great work.

Re: Gravity Wave Detector ready to go: BBC

Submitted by Shmooze (not verified) on Wed, 02/19/2003 - 09:14.

The facility is Washington has been operational for a while now - however I think it's an extremely ambitious project. If you think about the distance involved and all the seismic activity in the NorthWest they essentially have all this known jitter they have to factor out before they can even start looking, and then the minute change that would occur if a wave passed through, how would you know for sure it was a gravity wave? Don't get me wrong I I'm all for science, but I'm not staying up late waiting for results from this project. Now those giant pools of water buried deep inside caves looking for those super dense quarks...

Re: Gravity Wave Detector ready to go: BBC

Submitted by atrox (not verified) on Thu, 02/20/2003 - 16:36.

lol, yeah yeah, i dont know if seismic activity will affect the lasers, but i understand they certainly should have some flak to deal with. i have a three year old potato in my basement that has detected something. i will publish the results someday.